Chinese stories

I’m not sure if it’s a blessing or not when a dictionary lists several widely-varying definitions for one word, all of which would make acceptable translations. And I’m not one for blindly following the dictionary in every case, but at least I expect the dictionary to help me narrow down my choices, rather than expand them. This is the case for the word ‘linglong’ 玲珑, which I always look up when I come across it, even for the 436th time, and the dictionary almost never helps me. So what is a translator to do?

In this case the word is a poetic one, often found in classical literature, meaning it has a ton of connotations. A quick check of a few C-E online and hard copy dictionaries comes up with ‘ingeneously and delicately wrought’, ‘exquisite’, ‘nimble’, and ‘tinkling of jade’. The 古代汉语词典 (a dictionary that I hardly ever find has the words I am looking for) gives ‘clear and crisp sound’ and ‘clear and transparent’.  Then finally,  汉典, which I tend to trust more than any other dictionary, especially for literary translation, gives no less than eight definitions: 1) the clear sound of jade; 2) transparent; 3) used in poetry to refer to plum blossomes or snow; 4) exquisite; 5) nimble; 6) refers to the Tang courtesan Shang Linglong; 7) refers to courtesans in general; the name of a musical movement. 

And the context is that it is being used to describe glass bead curtains. Now bead curtains certainly tinkle like jade, are transparent, are exquisitely wrought, might look like snow in the bright sun, and their movement is nimble. Since it appears in poetry, pretty much anything goes, so I suppose the translator has to try to figure it out from context or commentary, or just make a choice.  

What I have to work with:

马祖常《咏琉璃帘》：“吴侬巧制玉玲珑”

李白《玉阶怨》：“却下水精帘，玲珑望秋月”

温庭筠《菩萨蛮》：“竹风轻动庭除冷，珠帘月上玲珑影”

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It’s kind of funny how I tend to gravitate towards reading in English in my spare time, and have to make an effort to pick up something Chinese once in a while. I started in on 《红楼梦》 a while back, and got through the first eight chapters before getting distracted. In the meantime my wife picked it up and whipped through the first eighty chapters in a few weeks. I still haven’t gotten around to finishing what I started. My wife happened to pick up a copy of Pride and Prejudice (傲慢与偏见) at the local Bargain Books, a store here that sells books that are new and a little off the beaten tracks for very low prices. Now this was a book that I swore I would never read again having loathed being assigned it in high school, and not finding it the least bit sarcastic or witty. But I found it in the jon one day and after reading the first chapter decided that after so many years I found the book quite well written, and ended up whipping through it in no time. I couldn’t help but think that this book is so carefully written that it must have been a huge challenge for its Chinese translator.

After looking online it seems that Wang Keyi’s 王科一 (1925-1968, graduate of Fudan University’s English department, I wonder what kind of end he met in ’68) translation is generally accepted as the best, and here is an excpert of his work from chapter 34 when Darcy professes his love for Elizabeth: 

“In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”

Elizabeth’s astonishment was beyond expression. She stared, coloured, doubted, and was silent. This he considered sufficient encouragement; and the avowal of all that he felt, and had long felt for her, immediately followed. He spoke well; but there were feelings besides those of the heart to be detailed; and he was not more eloquent on the subject of tenderness than of pride. His sense of her inferiority–of its being a degredation–of the family obstacles which had always opposed to inclination, were dwelt on with a warmth which seemed due to the consequence he was wounding, but was very unlikely to recommend his suit.

“我实在没有办法死捱活撑下去了。这怎么行。我的感情也压制不住了。请允许我告诉你，我多么敬慕你，多么爱你。” 

伊丽莎白真是说不出的惊奇。她瞪着眼，红着脸，满腹狐疑，闭口不响。他看这情形，便认为她是在怂恿他讲下去，于是立刻把目前和以往对她的种种好感全都和盘托出。他说得很动听，除了倾诉爱情以外，又把其他种种感想也源源本本说出来了。他一方面千言万语地表示深情密意，但是另一方面却又说了许许多多傲慢无礼的话。他觉得她出身低微，觉得自己是迁就她，而且家庭方面的种种障碍，往往会使他的见解和他的心愿不能相容并存——他这样热烈地倾诉，虽然显得他这次举动的慎重，却未必能使他的求婚受到欢迎。

I’m no expert on translation into Chinese, but it appears to be a very good translation, and captures the meaning of the original pretty well.  But I don’t know if it is possible to fully convey the feeling of the original in translation. The first thing I notice is that the Chinese does not seem to be as economical as the English–Austen is such a careful and concise writer, but the first sentence of the Chinese seems too long, and

He spoke well; but there were feelings besides those of the heart to be detailed; and he was not more eloquent on the subject of tenderness than of pride.

becomes

他说得很动听，除了倾诉爱情以外，又把其他种种感想也源源本本说出来了。他一方面千言万语地表示深情密意，但是另一方面却又说了许许多多傲慢无礼的话。

And I don’t think even then the Chinese gets the full gist of the original. 

The translator even seems to add some material to what he may have thought was implied in the original when he says  往往会使他的见解和他的心愿不能相容并存. Perhaps the translator wanted to better capture most of the intended meanings at the expence of brevity. 

Also the passive construction “My feelings will not be repressed” gives a feeling of old Victorian British properness that I’m not sure comes through in the Chinese 我的感情也压制不住了. I could imagine a contemporary young Chinese person saying the same thing. And perhaps here, instead of trying to use strange constructions to duplicate the sense of traditional Britishness that contemporary English readers will pick up on, it might be best just to use straightforward contemporary Chinese constructions.

Still, I’m amazed at the feat and the courage of the translator in trying to tackle such an impossible task.

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I used to read blogs on China a lot, both when I was studying Chinese here in the US and working in China. They usually helped me to make better sense of things and were pretty entertaining actually. Nowadays I barely have any time to read them regularly anymore because I’m either taking care of the kid or working to try to pay the bills as a freelancer. It seems like this is kind of a down time for English Internet content on China, what with bloggers taking time off and the Net Nanny throwing a blanket over wide swaths of the Internet. I figure the only thing to do is to update this thing a little more regularly, and as I figure nobody wants to read about life in rural Michigan, I want to try to give a weekly update of different issues that come up as a freelancer.

The phone interpreting is still relatively new to me, as I’ve only been doing it for about a month now. One thing I like about it is the Chinese speakers on the line can’t see me, so they can’t judge just by my looks whether they think I will be able to help them or not. If I just start in and speak Chinese they can understand, they wonder about who I am and why I speak Chinese like people might in face-to-face interpretation, which might affect the interpretation process. I don’t have much experience with face-to-face, so this is just a theory.

One of the most difficult things is communicating with elderly people, which is most of the calls from hospitals or Medicare. I either have to shout and repeat myself or have them repeat themselves. I think this might be an area where native Chinese speakers may have an advantage, since they could pick up on the thicker accents that the elderly tend to have. A lot of younger people can speak some English and just need an interpreter to get through the tougher questions. It’s interesting getting to help out a random cross-section of Chinese people in America. 

There are also more ethical questions that come up in interpreting that I don’t have to face when doing translation. For example, we’re supposed to tell the Chinese speakers that our job is to interpret everything that is said. Sometimes this can get left out if the person cuts me off or starts talking right away. This warning to them is particularly important to remember when police or legal issues are involved, because they might say something such as admitting to a crime that I have to translate, even though they were addressing me instead of the police officer. Also, when doctors ask if a patient has a list of medical conditions, it is very important to cover all of them, as not doing so might have serious implications. I usually try to keep track of how many conditions the doctor asks about, and if I end up dropping one during the interpretation I can make sure to ask about it so that I don’t leave anything out. 

The translating is going well, the hard thing about that is, unlike phone interpreting, it is impossible to schedule. I went from a pretty light load to a nearly impossible workload in just one afternoon. And since they are all old clients of mine it is hard to turn them down. It’s tough because when you don’t have work you’re stressed about finding some, then when you have work, you’re stressed about getting it all done. But it’s always better to have too much than none at all I suppose.

On a side note I agreed to help out my friend with his anime/asian import store that he re-opened near here this month. I’m just going in for a few hours twice a week, and I am still amazed at how hard it is to spot an anime fan. On my first night there we had a group of mormon missionaries in their white shirts and ties, a guy dressed like he was ready to start an NFL game, three guys who got all their clothes from Ambercrombie, and a gangster-type guy. All huge anime fans. The missionaries stayed for about a half hour and ended up buying a little Buddha statue.

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